The 30th of August is Melbourne Day, and today Melbourne was 175 years old.

- Melbourne Day Birthday Cake -

Although Melbourne Day is an official day, it’s not an official holiday, so it’s not celebrated with gusto. Most people don’t know about it actually. If you were to pick a true Melbourne Day it would probably be Melbourne Cup day. It’s the horse race that stops the nation, and we get a day off for that one.

- Melbourne Day Flags and St Pauls Cathedral -

There were various celebrations on around the city, and the one thing I wanted to see was the replica of the Tall Ship Enterprize. Well it’s not very tall, but it is still special. This was the ship that brought European settlers on the northern bank of the Yarra River on the 30th of August, 1835.

- Enterprize at Melbourne Docklands –

While free admission to the Enterprize was excellent, the freebie of the day award would surely go to the Melbourne Day Coffee Cups, a useful and oh so appropriate Melbourne themed giveaway.

- Melbourne Day Coffee Cups -

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Weeze was a cold-war era RAF base which has since been converted into a commercial airport, of the variety as favoured by low cost airlines. Good old Ryanair call Weeze “Dusseldorf”, even though it is 70 km’s away. I flew to Weeze for its proximity to the Netherlands. Before continuing onto Amsterdam though, I took a detour to nearby Essen.

My shuttle bus from the airport was supposed to take me to Essen, but due to roadworks on the freeway we were dropped off at Duisburg. Rather than going straight through on the local train I had a wander around town. Afterall when I am ever going to be in Duisburg again?

Duisburg is in the industrial Ruhr region so I wasn’t expecting much. Walking around the city I stumbled upon an artist I have seen before in my travels, Niki de Saint Phalle.

This lively installation – Lifesaver – is by de Saint Phalle and her husband Jean Tingeuly.

In my travels around Europe over the last 10 years I have come to notice several artists that reoccur in different cities. de Saint Phalle is one of those artists. She has an instantly recognizable style and I have seen her work in Zurich, Paris, Luxembourg and now Duisburg. Maybe I have seen her work elsewhere, before I was aware of who she was.

Tinguely also has a style of his own that can be spotted as a Tinguely a mile away. His specialty was mechanical sculpture, and he often collaborated with his wife. If you have been to Paris then you may recognize their work from the Stravinsky Fountain at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

In Essen I had come to see a building by Austrian painter and architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. His work is prominent in his home city of Vienna, where there are three buildings which have been remodelled in his style.

Hundertwasserhaus Essen is tucked away in a suburban park and it is a Ronald McDonald House. The building is classic Hundertwasser, with a onion domed tower, bright colours and the structure blending into the surrounding environment.

I seem to have a thing for architects with an artistic background, such as Hundertwasser, as I am also drawn to the likes of Bruno Weber and Antoni Gaudi. If any of their works are near to where I am visiting, I will go on the architectural pilgrimage to see their work.

Budapest is sometimes called the Paris of the East. I prefer to call Paris the Budapest of the West.

The apartment facades that line the streets of Budapest are like a shabby version of Paris.

When I’m booking a place to stay I like to pick places that are apartment rentals or hostels in apartments. Not only is it the cheapest option, but it gives you a glimpse of what these grand apartments look like from the inside.

The hostel I stayed at was on one of the main streets and well worn from the outside. Once you enter the building though there is a large light filled courtyard with all the apartment entrances looking down.

Varna

I arrived in Varna with the intention of moving on after a day and ended up spending a few days here. It is a good sized city with stately old buildings that are a bit run down. Varna is a port city that is close to the beach, so it has a part work,part play feel to it. Varna is a candidate city for the European Capital of Culture in 2019, so you may hear more about it in the future.

Varna’s Drama Theatre

Market – Varna

Most people who fly to Varna are coming for the beach resorts. There are two popular resorts nearby called Golden Sands and Sunny Beach. I have seen those names many times in British travel agent windows, so I knew that they were going to be package holiday beaches, but I wanted to check it out for myself.

I was intending to go to Golden Sands but it was a cold and drizzly day – not a good beach day – so I opted to spend my day hiding from the rain in cafes instead.

Espresso Time – Varna.

Sunny Beach

With a name like Sunny Beach it has to be dodgy, but I kind of liked it actually. Sunny Beach is all resort hotels and seaside tackiness, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. As an Australian I find European beach resorts fascinating. I mean look at this beach!

Sunny Beach – Bulgaria

There is not a spare piece of beach for all the umbrellas. The sand itself is very good quality, but I don’t come to Europe for the beaches. I come for the old towns.

Nessebar
Next to Sunny Beach is Nessebar. You can walk right along Sunny Beach until you get to a peninsula where Nessebar is situated. This old fishing town is a World Heritage listed site and is filled with old ruins and lovely cobbled side streets. The crowds are quite scary when you first arrive, but as you wander deeper into the town the crowds thin out.

Christ Pantocrator Church – Nessebar

Burgas

South of Sunny Beach and Nessebar is the port city of Burgas. There is another airport here with low cost flights around Europe, and it is also a handy place to base yourself for visiting villages along the coast.

Along the main shopping street of Burgas.

Sozopol

South of Burgas is the ancient town of Sozopol, which like Nessebar is filled with old ruins and winding little streets. It is also surrounded by some decent beaches that aren’t as crowded as the resort towns.

Looking to the beach at Sozopol.

Getting to the Black Sea Coast

Low cost airlines and European charter flights fly to Varna and Burgas. Trains are also a good option, with both cities being connected to Sofia.

View Larger Map

Ever since I discovered this geographic curiosity I have often thought about walking from top to bottom. When I was in Newport I casually told my hosts Kevin and Brigitte of my idea while we were pouring over the legendary New York Subway map. Far from thinking I was crazy, they thought is was a worthy challenge and wanted to come as well.

Being that it was summer we got started at 6am. It is already light at this time of year in New York and it was ideal walking weather.

We arrived at 210th St station to begin the walk. It turns out we should have started at 225th station as that is just next to the Broadway Bridge on the Bronx side of the river.

At 225th St on the Bronx side of the Broadway Bridge.

On the subway there was a man with a bum bag in walking shoes who didn’t look like he had any business getting the train to the Bronx at 5.45 in the morning. He got out with us and started walking down Broadway as well, so I am not alone in wanting to walk Broadway. A quick search on google shows plenty of other Broadway walkers out there. I wonder how many people a day do this walk?

The walk took 6 hours and 45 minutes, which included breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks along the way. We had no time limit on our walk so we could stop as often as we wanted. Our only rule was that we had to stay on Broadway, so any enticing shop off Broadway would have to be noted and visited some other time.

Before this walk I had never been higher than 130th St. Seeing the grand parks and buildings in the 200′s was unexpected for me and it was interesting to see such a varied cross section of neighborhoods across the island. Walking Broadway is a great way to experience Manhattan.

Walking Broadway Photo Gallery

Montmartre or Manhattan? Isham Park in Inwood.

Fort Tryon Park.

125th St Station.

Tom’s Restaurant (as seen on Seinfeld)

Grand apartment blocks of the Upper West Side (Ansonia Building).

Street piano project at Times Square.

The Flatiron building looks even flatter when you look straight down Broadway.

Broadway and Broome in SoHo.

Finishing up at Number 1 Broadway.

The monastery is famous for its frescoes by Bulgarian artist Zahari Zograf. The external porch walls of the main church is covered in colourful religious imagery.

Much of the subject matter is of apocalyptic last judgement images. Bat-winged demons and gruesome death scenes are prominent. There are so many little details, so spending some time looking over every detail of each panel reveals some pretty bizarre interpretations of what the apocalypse would look like.

The Rila Monastery is an easy day trip from Sofia. There are tours that go there but the cheapest way is to get a local bus which will take you straight there in 2 and a half hours.

New Country Day is here again. I have arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, after a two day stop-over in London from the USA.

Whenever I come to Europe I have made a point of visiting a new country every time. I have large chunks of the Balkans and the East remaining in Europe so I still have plenty of countries to go.

The event was attended by 300 travel bloggers and PR representatives. The friday night was a dedicated opening night party hosted by Weber Shandwick Travel & Lifestyle at the Omni Berkshire Place. The saturday and sunday were the conference days with a wide range of speakers and panel topics represented.

Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere.

The highlight of TBEX

Reflecting on my notes I would have to say that I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know, or that I could have found out online, from the talks. That is beside the point. The greatest highlight for me was good old fashioned networking.

I got to meet so many people that I know from my online world. It was great to be part of such an interesting community of people, especially seeing that most of us don’t get to mingle with our work peers all that often.

I knew some people just from their online avatar. I have chatted with many people who were there online. I had met a few people previously, such as Jodi Ettenberg and Gary Arndt, who I met in Bangkok earlier this year. The blogger I have known the longest online is Johnny Jet, who was as friendly and likeable as he comes across in his newsletter. I first stumbled upon his site way back in the year 2000, which is an eternity in the online world.

Yours truly and Johnny Jet.

Tacos!

I love Mexican food, so I was happy to see that a taco truck was hired by Diamond PR. It actually turned out to be an inspired move, as it was the fastest way to clear out the convention room.

Taco Truck.

Best Networking Tool

I thought it was ironic that in a room full of tech savvy digital nomads, the most popular networking tool wasn’t an iPhone app but the humble paper business card. I recently had some made in Bangkok, not thinking I would ever be able to give them all away. I ended up getting through half of them.

Good old fashioned business cards.

TBEX’11

At the end of the event the location for TBEX’11 was announced. And the winner is…Vancouver. I am very happy about that as I have never been there, so this will be a good excuse to go.

Thoughts on TBEX

The old adage is true that time flies when you are having fun. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the weekend wasn’t long enough. I know it is usually most practical to have conferences on weekends so you can’t really make it any longer. I would though like to see some smaller panels on specific topics, as well as places to chat.

If you are a travel blogger/travel writer and are looking to improve your game and join a great community, then you should consider coming to Vancouver in 2011. Bring plenty of business cards.

My principal job as a web developer means that don’t need an office and I can work anywhere in the world. While I enjoy working my own hours, not wearing a tie or answering phones, most of my work related social interaction occurs online.

This week I will be hanging up my cloak of virtual anonymity and be meeting my travel blogging peers at the Travel Blog Exchange TBEX ’10 in New York City.

I don’t need an excuse to visit New York, so visiting for this much anticipated travel event is a great double.

I Am Not My Avatar

When I represent myself online I usually use my Nomadic Notes Avatar. I do this for 2 reasons:

1) Branding
2) I can’t be bothered keeping my face picture up to date across dozens of social media sites.

Nomadic Notes Avatar

That does mean though that when I go to industry events I usually have to introduce myself as “James Clark…Nomadic Notes”.

So if you are going to TBEX’ 10, this is what I look like. Look out for me and say hi. You may have to introduce yourself by your real name and your user name as well.

Yours truly, Laviating.